posted at 4:01 pm on June 5, 2014 by Allahpundit

Does this further incriminate him on the desertion charge or does it cut the other way? Could be that he went outside the wire the first time as a “dry run” for desertion, to see if he could make it that far without being caught. It could also be that the guy was simply a kook, a “free-spirited young man,” as the Times puts it, who was so eager to find a plum spot from which to watch the sun rise that he’d, er, wander off into the Afghanistan countryside. That’s not the same as my “mental break” theory, but it’s not far from it.

Deserter or doofus? They’re not mutually exclusive, you know.

The report cites accounts from his unit mates that in their predeployment exercise at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., he sneaked or crawled off a designated course or range either to see how far he could go or to see a sunrise or sunset…

The report is also said to cite members of his platoon as saying that he may have taken a shorter unauthorized walk outside the concertina wire of his combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan before he left for good, in an incident that was apparently not reported up the chain of command. The Military Times on Wednesday first reported that claim, also citing officials familiar with the military’s report…

[The report] is said to confirm certain other details relayed in recent accounts, including that Sergeant Bergdahl shipped his computer and a journal home before he disappeared. It also confirms that he left behind his body armor and weapon – an unwieldy SAW machine gun – taking with him water, knives and a compass…

While much of the report is said to focus on disciplinary problems within his unit and a lack of accountability within its chain of command, the report is also said to portray Sergeant Bergdahl as a free-spirited young man who read martial-arts books, drank tea with Afghan soldiers from whom he tried to pick up Pashto phrases, and maintained a collection of throwing stars and knives, which it documents in detail.

There’s no better place for a “free spirit” to follow his bliss than Taliban country in the middle of a war. The report concludes that Bergdahl did indeed leave the base voluntarily; what it doesn’t say definitively is that he left with the intent to never return, notwithstanding the details about him shipping his belongings home and leaving his weapon and body armor behind. But if he didn’t leave to join the Taliban, what other reason might he have had? Jake Tapper dug around for possibilities and came up with this:

But assuming the account of Buetow and Gerleve is accurate [that radio intercepts indicated an American was looking to talk to the Taliban], one former government official involved in the case cautions that Bergdahl, who was a private at the time, seeking the Taliban does not necessarily mean nefarious intent.

“This is just one of a range of potential explanations,” the official said. “But that report tracks with other indicators of a sort of messianic mission on his part to stop the violence and perhaps help broker an understanding with the local Taliban. If this was his motive, it throws things into a bit different light.”

Buetow said, “That could be a possibility,” noting that “he was upset with the way we were handling the war effort while in Afghanistan. He just never gave me specifics on what it was he was frustrated with.

That’s the kook theory in a nutshell. Bergdahl may well have been disgusted with the U.S. and its mission and left to seek out the Taliban — not to “actively collaborate” with them, though, but to fulfill some odd fantasy that he was going to negotiate the end of the war. Remember, there are reports that he tried to escape from the Taliban at least twice. None of that would absolve him from the charge of desertion but it would challenge the suspicion, raised by former squad mates Evan Buetow and Justin Gerleve, that he was helping the Taliban improve the precision of their attacks on U.S. convoys.

One other curious note about the classified military report. The NYT points out that it makes no mention of the alleged radio intercepts that Buetow and Gerleve swear they heard about an American soldier looking to talk to the Taliban. There is a reference in the Army’s war logs to intercepts about an unnamed U.S. soldier looking to talk to someone who speaks English — not to the Taliban specifically — but oddly none of that made it into the report, despite eyewitness accounts to it from men in Bergdahl’s unit. You know what else didn’t make it into the report? The mysterious note that Bergdahl may or may not have left in his tent before going outside the wire. The NYT went back to its source on that and asked him where he got his information. Answer: “[H]e remembered reading a field report discussing the existence of such a letter in the early days of the search and was unable to explain why it is not mentioned in the final investigative report.” Fox News has also heard independently from its sources that there was a damning letter — and yet, somehow, despite it being the single strongest indicator about Bergdahl’s motives, there’s no reference to it in a classified report devoted to investigating Bergdahl’s motives. Either the report whitewashed key evidence about the case or someone on the ground invented the note and stuck it in a field report, where news of it began to circulate. Hmmmmmmmm.

Update: If it turns out Bergdahl did walk away in half-assed hopes of brokering a peace deal, would that spare him a desertion charge? Probably not:

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Answer: “[H]e remembered reading a field report discussing the existence of such a letter in the early days of the search and was unable to explain why it is not mentioned in the final investigative report.” Fox News has also heard independently from its sources that there was a damning letter — and yet, somehow, despite it being the single strongest indicator about Bergdahl’s motives, there’s no reference to it in a classified report devoted to investigating Bergdahl’s motives. Either the report whitewashed key evidence about the case or someone on the ground invented the note and stuck it in a field report, where news of it began to circulate. Hmmmmmmmm.

Oh, no, Allah, almost everyone here will tell you that you’re a traitor, liar, scumbag, whatever for questioning in any way any of the details reported by Cody and the others on Fox News or suggesting in any way that they might have embellished things. sarc off/

jim56 on June 5, 2014 at 5:41 PM

I guess those rotten right-wing SOB’s at the NY Times don’t deserve an honorable mention in ‘lettergate’, ‘eh?

A document released by WikiLeaks contains an intercepted communication that suggests Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban while relieving himself — although other aspects of the intercept are at odds with what is known about Bergdahl’s disappearance.

The question of just how Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban has become an increasingly politicized one since his release in a prisoner exchange. Some conservatives have suggested that Bergdahl was a deserter. Others, meanwhile, maintain that he was simply absent without leave. The brief intercept published by WikiLeaks as part of a much larger chronicle of Bergdahl’s disappearance suggests a third course of events altogether — that he had not even left his base.

“WE WERE ATTACKING THE POST HE WAS SITTING TAKING EXPLETIVE HE HAD NO GUN WITH HIM,” reads the July 1, 2009, intercept of an apparent Taliban communication.

That intercept, which was also referred to in a 2012 Rolling Stone article, suggests the soldier had little role in his capture by the Taliban.

But other aspects of the WikiLeaks document suggest that Bergdahl did indeed leave his base willingly. Another intercept suggests that “an American Soldier with a camera is looking for someone who speaks English.”

Few other sources support the idea that Bergdahl was taken by the Taliban while the base was being attacked. A military review conducted after his disappearance in 2009 concluded that he most likely simply walked away at night.

Gee, you apparently believe at face value everything the Taliban said about Bowe. I’m sure you’d also have believed everything Tokyo Rose said during WWII as well, as well, right? I’m sure both of those only told the total truth and didn’t manipulate the message for their own benefit, right?

jimbo 56 on June 5, 2014 at 5:46 PM

I’m sure you believed Dan Rather when he used forged documents to claim George W. Bush was an AWOL deserter, right? And you believed Harry Reid when he said the Iraq War was “lost”, right?

But other aspects of the WikiLeaks document suggest that Bergdahl did indeed leave his base willingly. Another intercept suggests that “an American Soldier with a camera is looking for someone who speaks English.”

Few other sources support the idea that Bergdahl was taken by the Taliban while the base was being attacked. A military review conducted after his disappearance in 2009 concluded that he most likely simply walked away at night.

some of us were MPs who actually have dealt with awol people before.
what fox or anyone says means nothing to me, what his team mates say and the patterns he exhibited say a lot to me.
so try not being a dumbass.

Many Democrats are still convinced Bush was an AWOL deserter, and 2 years ago Dan Rather claimed that the documents weren’t forged.

And the majority (nearly 80%) of Democrats are also still convinced that the US lost the Iraq War. The percentages of Republicans and Independents who believe that we lost the Iraq War are at least 50% lower.

It’s 102 degrees in my part of Texas, and my A/C unit is non-functional. the heat, coupled with the sheer disgust I hold for the opinions and views of ‘verbaluce’ were instrumental in that reference to him/her contracting a particularly nasty disease. The comment was uncalled for, and for that I do apologize to verbaluce and to the rest of the group. I take this stuff seriously, folks. Often times my fingers type a wee bit faster than my 65 year old brain thinks. A walk and a nice ice cold soda works wonders. — Joe

I’m sorry to hear that. I was just trying to warn a fellow commenter that the edge might be close at hand, not for me but for the hosts. If you think someone was banned for another person’s post, you should point it out to the hosts.

Ahhhh, 102 without A/C. Get a bucket of water, dump ice cubes in and put your feet in. Also, a damp dish towel in the freezer, then around your neck is helpful. That happened to in 2005 with the Husband 600 miles away, dithering on his decision what to do. I was a B!TCH!

The White House CYA Team has probably figured out that a “confused nut” cuts a more sympathetic figure than a “deserter”, “traitor” and even “collaborator” and this is the best way to get Bozo off the hook.

But even if this charade were the truth does “being nuts” excuse either a soldier or his commander-in-chief from making horrific decisions that have and will cost lives? also, how does this jibe with another WH “suggestion” that “poor” Bergdahl was in a platoon of “back-biting malcontents?”? Oh, I see, the “malcontents” drove him nuts.

But maybe we can get poetic justice if a nutty Bergdahl checks into a VA hospital and has both kidneys removed by mistake.

Eh, if being offended by comments were a sport we would have 20,000 teams in the USA.

At least you’re willing to apologize if you felt the need to, there are worse comments from lefties that have gone unregistered and unpunished.

Bishop on June 5, 2014 at 6:32 PM

Oh, I have lurked around here long enough to realize that, my friend, and I also realize that for some reason, lefties seem to be allowed a whole lot more rope with which to hang themselves with as opposed to the short one afforded to the more conservative leaning posters. Just an observation, but i believe an accurate one…

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal on Sgt. Bowe Bergdal: Anyone who serves has a responsibility to people they serve with; as a nation, we have a responsibility to those who serve; we should not judge until we know the facts -@OKnox
Read more on yahoo.com

Sorry you didn’t connect with the day he got banned .
Yup , a very passionate guy that was banned for quoting
the lamppost /politician famous quote .
There were a couple of HA commenters that remembered .
A very passionate person indeed .

When I fought in Afghanistan there were many stories about how Bowe Bergdahl was captured. In one video released by the Taliban, Bergdahl said he had lagged behind on a patrol and been taken. For years, it stood as a kind of accusation against his comrades in Blackfoot Company: They had left him behind. But, on the day Bergdahl disappeared, June 30, 2009, there was in fact no patrol, according to other soldiers who were there. On that night, instead of patrolling, they slept in the earthen bunkers of OP Mest, an outpost scraped from a hillside in Afghanistan’s rugged and remote Paktika Province. Life at OP Mest had been miserable: weeklong rotations in the scorching heat, no showers, no food except for Meals Ready-To-Eat.

The next morning, Sergeant First Class Larry Hein took muster. Then the misery really began. Bergdahl was gone. At 9:00 a.m., Hein called over the radio to report a missing soldier. Bergdahl was then classified DUSTWUN—Duty Status: Whereabouts Unknown. A little before 5:00 p.m. that afternoon, the senior officer responsible for Paktika ordered that “all operations will cease until the missing soldier is found. All assets will be focused on the DUSTWUN situation and sustainment operations.” Drones and intelligence aircraft were diverted; recovering Bowe Bergdahl became Blackfoot Company’s central mission.

Beginning that August, Bergdahl’s battalion lost six soldiers in a three-week period—all of these fatalities occurred on a mission that was related to, or influenced by, the effort to find Bergdahl. In this remote part of an increasingly remote war, suffering and loss—the senselessness of Afghanistan—often played out in Bergdahl’s name. By March of 2010, Bergdahl’s infantry battalion had returned home without him. Before they left, the Army mandated they sign non-disclosure agreements. Bergdahl’s story wouldn’t be theirs to tell.

‘No one’s serious about a rescue mission. It’d be too risky. Maybe if Bergdahl had actually been captured they’d do something, but he deserted.’

I served in the Marines, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and later, in special operations in Afghanistan’s rugged Paktika Province, for a good part of 2010 and 2011, working out of a remote firebase a few kilometers from the Pakistani border. At night my colleagues and I would climb on our bunkered roof, a tumbler of scotch or a cigar in hand, and watch the drone strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in South Waziristan. During those days, Bergdahl’s case loomed ever-present. The irony that an iconic figure in a war that had largely been deserted by the American people was probably a deserter himself was never lost on us. It seemed just our luck.

Well it doesn’t matter that the president is a communist so why should it matter that Bergdahl is a deserter?

bgibbs1000 on June 5, 2014 at 7:56 PM

I see what you’re saying.

The implication is true. We should have traded the President for the deserter and, say, two handsome goats and a dozen woven baskets to make up the difference. Then we could have traded the baskets and one goat for our guy in Mexico, and come out of the whole deal with 1. one apprehended traitor, 2. a new President, 3. freedom for our guy in Mexico, 4. a dozen workers willing to do the jobs Americans won’t do, 5. an excellent goat.

OT: Two retired generals–frequent FNC contributors–just reamed Obama’s trade. One said that Obama new everything about Bergdahl; the other said trading a buck-sergeant for the equivalent of five four-star generals is inconceivable and has never been done in US history.

Wow…how classless.
It’s one thing to wrap yourself in the flag.
But this?
It’s rank and shameless political opportunism.

verbaluce on June 5, 2014 at 4:41 PM

The president releases five top members of the Taliban, linked to the biggest terrorist attack on American soil EVER, from prison and back to the battlefield (after a supposed year-long vacation), all for one single deserter…..

Oh, no, Allah, almost everyone here will tell you that you’re a traitor, liar, scumbag, whatever for questioning in any way any of the details reported by Cody and the others on Fox News or suggesting in any way that they might have embellished things. sarc off/

jim56 on June 5, 2014 at 5:41 PM

Do you ever tire of being a f*cking idiot? i mean, you do seem to put a lot of effort into it; are there exercises that help you hone your f*cking idiot skills, or is that just raw, uncut f*cking idiot talent? Or maybe you studied at a private school, took classes on weekends, sought out tutoring, and after years of relentless pursuit in excellence, you have arrived here, now, and an incredible f*cking idiot.

Oh, no, Allah, almost everyone here will tell you that you’re a traitor, liar, scumbag, whatever for questioning in any way any of the details reported by Cody and the others on Fox News or suggesting in any way that they might have embellished things. sarc off/

jim56 on June 5, 2014 at 5:41 PM

Another typical leftist know-nothing a-hole who thinks he can read other people’s minds.

Just to make absolutely sure we understand due process according to Democrats: Bergdahl almost literally wrote a confession in his own blood and we still have to wait until the court martial to draw any conclusions, but we knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Marines at Haditha had “snapped” and committed a massacre before the bullet casings has cooled.